Friendship Will Stand
by HellIsHere
Summary: Ron has recently been reunited with his best friends. His reunion with Harry was everything he had hoped for. Hermione... not so much. This isn't going to end well. Unless...


**Hey guys, thanks to all who reviewed/favourited/read my last story, so il give you all another one, enjoy!**

Somewhere in the forest of Dean, Ron Weasley sat beside a tree, keeping a close watch over the tent, with his two best friends, Harry and Hermione in it. Hermione walked out of the tent to gather firewood, pointedly looking away from Ron's tree.

Normally, Ron would have smiled to himself, but after his unforgivable actions, he was rendered nearly incapable of feeling happiness. Now, instead, he was trying to come up with a way to ease everyone's emotional burdens.

Getting Hermione to forgive him didn't seem like an option any more, considering her reaction when he returned, and her current furious state with him seemed to be annoying Harry, who, once again took a neutral stance.

A few minutes passed until Hermione came back, piled the wood onto the dying fire and cast another _Incendio _on the pile of wood, re-igniting the fire. Before walking back into the tent, Ron heard her speak:

"You haven't left yet. I'm impressed; hope you manage to stay with us the _whole night_".

She had said this with so much venom that Ron couldn't hold back his anger.

"Bloody hell Hermione, you're acting like I'm about as loyal as Pettigrew! Harry already told me you cried for ages when I left, but I'm back, I obviously cared about you guys enough to do that, not to mention spending days looking for you!"

"You still left us! Nothing you can do will ever change that!"

At this point, the pang of guilt struck his heart once more, but then, he remember Harry's words, telling him that he had made up for it by saving his life and destroying the Horcrux, after recovering the sword.

"I still reckon I made up for it! Harry told me that himself! I SAVED HIS BLOODY LIFE! I DESTROYED THE LOCKET AFTER IT TORTURED ME!"

"W-What? Harry said it just screamed." She said in a softer, more tentative voice.

"Because We weren't ready for you to know, now keep your annoying trap shut about WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

The anger returned to Hermione's voice and what could soon be the biggest row the pair of them had ever had continued.

"Even if you were tortured, it couldn't compare to what Harry and I felt when you left! Don't tell me you felt hurt when we were there in an utter state of melancholy!"

At this point, Harry's messy, black haired head poked out of the tent, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Hermione, calm down, what the locket did to Ron was a hundred times worse than whatever you're thinking right now. It's a wonder Ron managed to stay with us, with the locket for so long, I myself would have left weeks before he did if I was that miserable."

"Don't try and defend him Harry Potter! You and I wore that locket as much as he did!" Replied Hermione, her temper only rising

"What did it do to us? Only made us more irritable and we couldn't cast patronuses, bu-" Harry was cut off by Hermione's livid voice.

"EXACTLY! THAT IS NO REASON TO ABANDON YOUR BEST FRIENDS!"

"Don't interrupt Hermione." said Ron in a mocking voice, clearly imitating Hermione.

This was enough to push Hermione's temper to indescribable heights. She grabbed her wand and without hesitation, pointed it at Ron.

Harry, realising that she didn't have the patience to listen to Ron and himself, leapt forward and restrained her arms, while Ron took her wand and put it in her bag.

"HARRY LET ME GO THIS INSTANT!" yelled Hermione.

For the first time that day, Harry lost his temper.

"HERMIONE WILL YOU PLEASE JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN!" It was more of a command than a request.

"Fine, but this had better be good." She said, unwilling to back down.

"Alright" said Harry after a deep breath.

"Ron you describe what it did to you, I'll help out whenever I can."

"Right. Hermione, you know how I'm the youngest son in a pretty big family? Well, I always felt overshadowed by everyone. Bill and Charlie, successful, clever, popular, Bill being a head boy and Charlie being Quidditch captain, Percy, despite him being a prat, he was really clever and got grades about as good as you, again being head boy, Fred and George, both of them are really popular and funny, and Ginny was the baby of the family, everyone gushes over her, and as for me? I'm nothing special at all. I became a prefect, and instead of proud reactions, everyone was shocked. Not even my grades are good."

"Ron, where are you going with this?" asked Hermione, her anger slowly being replaced by curiosity and pity.

"Just wait, you'll see. Anyway, when I went to Hogwarts, I felt that nothing I could do would impress anyone, because my brothers always did it first, while everyone continued to gush over Ginny. My family weren't the only ones overshadowing me; in fact, look at who my best mate is. Harry Potter. I didn't really mind that much, but a part of me kept reminding me that I would never be anything impressive like Harry. It got worse as I got older, and the final blow came with Viktor Krum. I knew I could never compete with him, so I thought that I'd never even have a chance to be with you"

"Wait a second, why would you want to be with me?"

"Don't pretend my feelings haven't been obvious after the thing with Lavender. And no, haven't loved you since after the 'Lavender incident', it's been much longer than that. Probably since the end of second year, after you recovered from being petrified."

"Ron, I had no idea, I always thought-" Words were failing her by then. Ron took this as his opportunity to continue.

"Well at least you know now. You're probably wondering why I left if I have loved you for so long. Well this is where this bloody locket comes in. For you and Harry it made you a bit moody, but for me, it reminded me of how much more amazing than me Harry is, and how a perfect girl like you wouldn't even look at me with someone like Harry two feet away. It did that every single time I put the locket on, until it didn't matter if I was wearing it or not. I always thought that what the locket said was true, and with the locket near me, everything went to shit. I tried to keep it together for weeks, but I couldn't stop it forever, so the day Harry and me fought was the day I left. You said you wanted to stay and that just did it for me. I couldn't look at either of you any more after that."

"Ron, I honestly thought-"

"Just wait, Hermione. I may have explained everything, but it doesn't excuse me from what I did. I've loved you for years and said nothing about it, and I went and abandoned my best friends in the whole world. I'm a bloody prat and I definitely understand why you don't love me back. If you want me out of your life after this damn Horcrux hunt, then I'll go. But for now, I'm staying with you and Harry, we're going to destroy Volde- err You- Know- Who, and finally save the world."

"Ron, I'm so sorry, this whole time I had no idea how horrible everything was for you. God, I feel horrible, how could I actually do that to you? Why did I doubt you?"

"Hermione, don't worry about it, like I said before, I'm nothing special, you don't need to worry yourself over me, I'm not worth it."

"Ron, don't say that! We care about you so much, we really need you I can't believe you would think such a thing!"

"No Hermione, really. I am Nothing. Honestly, if I was dying, I would tell you to save your healing stuff for yourself and Harry; I was never going to amount to anything anyway."

"Ron, where did you get such horrible ideas about yourself from? I have to help you!"

"I figured it out, but the locket made me feel worse about it."

"Basically, what he's saying is the locket made him think he was nothing but a worthless waste of space. But we aren't going to let him believe that bullshit are we Hermione?"

"No way, and on that note, Harry can you take watch? I need to talk to Ron. Alone."

"Fine, but you owe me one Hermione." Replied Harry with a knowing smile and a sly wink.

Hermione smiled back and then turned to Ron.

"We should go inside."

"Okay."

They walked into the tent, while Harry stepped out and climbed up a tree, beginning what was sure to be a very long, cold vigil.

"Ron, I understand now that you actually care about me, but there's a few things that I still don't get. Why would Viktor make you jealous? We just went to the Yule ball together, and he's my friend, nothing more.

"Maybe now, but I know you snogged him at least once."

Hermione blushed scarlet.

"I didn't think you knew about that."

"Well, I do, when Ginny told me, that's when any hope I tried building up got shattered. I realised then that I should give up hope for you and try and get over you. You're better off loving someone else, not me, especially when I have nothing to offer you. That's why I started going out with Lavender."

"You mean start countless games of tonsil-tennis with her?" asked Hermione with an uncharacteristic sly grin on her face.

After a few chuckles, Ron started to talk again.

"True, that was a ridiculously shallow relationship, but at least she cared about me. I was a sixteen year old, hopelessly in love with the perfect girl, without her showing any interest in me whatsoever. A pretty blonde girl shows up, interested in me, so I wasn't exactly going to refuse. I feel quite guilty about hurting her feelings like that to be honest."

"Ron, I'm going back to something you said earlier now. You said you thought your feelings for me were clear. What about mine for you? Harry told me how ridiculously obvious they were as well."

"Of course it's obvious! You're my other best friend!"

"Wow Ron. I can't believe you have no idea!"

"No, please tell me." Replied Ron, with a sheepish grin.

Hermione was contemplating on how to tell Ron what she _really _felt for him, but the situations her mind came up with didn't do either of them justice. So she let her instincts control her.

Shocking them both, Hermione leapt at Ron, wrapping her arms around his neck, crashing her lips onto his. Ron responded by lifting Hermione clean off her feet, which were soon enough around his waist. Ron carried her to one of the beds, their lips still attached.

"So you want to be best friends _with benefits?_" asked Ron, with a broad grin on his face.

"What do you think Ronald?" she asked rolling her eyes.

"Joking" he replied, his grin broadening.

"Fine, but seriously, you have all of the good qualities that your brothers and Harry have. You are really funny, you always know how to make us laugh, you are more intelligent than you give yourself credit for, and you're so brave... among so many other things... I love you."

"I love you too. So much that I didn't even understand it myself. On that note, would it be a bad idea to keep you waiting?"

"Very."

"In that case-" Ron kissed her again with all the passion he could possibly muster, earning a moan from Hermione, who began tugging at his shirt buttons.

Ron, meanwhile slowly guided his hands up Hermione's shirt, slowly and tantalizingly snaking them higher and higher, he knew he was about to get what he had fantasized about for years. He was so close...

"NOW I'VE SEEN IT ALL!" Boomed an ecstatic Harry from the tent entrance.

Ron opened his mouth to yell at Harry to get out, when Hermione put her finger on his lips, a mischevious smile on her face. She then turned to Harry.

"Oh hello Harry, I hope you won't mind me telling you this, but you should probably leave, considering the fact that Ron and I are about to succumb to more than four years of unresolved sexual tension."

"OI! Stop! Mental image! Bad! I get it!" yelled Harry, a look of mock disgust in his face. He turned around to leave, but stopped for a moment.

"Seriously you guys, I'm sorry you've had to sacrifice so much for me. You two are the most amazing people I have had the pleasure to know. I think you deserve this night to do, errr what I hope to do to your sister Ron."

"Memorize the first part of what you just said and you have an introduction to your future best man's speech, but if you say the rest of it, I may just eat you alive after your speech."

Harry was shocked at how calm Ron's response was, and unable to help himself, he grabbed a pillow form the bed and assaulted Ron with it.

"You're on Potter!"

With that, Ron grabbed Hermione's pillow and began a vicious duel with his not-official brother.

Hermione could do nothing, apart from smile and shake her head fondly at these two ridiculous, wonderful young men. After a few moments of Hermione thinking about how lucky she was to have Ron as her new boyfriend and Harry as her best friend/brother, she decided to grab the last two pillows and pound the pair, laughing as she went.

Harry and Ron looked at each other, grinning malicously, and they picked her up and ran around the tent with her over their shoulders, the three of them laughing hysterically as they continued their antics.

That night, Harry, Ron and Hermione forgot about the war outside, and spent the night laughing and playing games with each other, as if they were twelve again. That night, three young wizards got something they had deserved for years.

For that night during a horrific war, and that night only, all was well.

**I loved writing that! If you guys like it enough, tell me in a review if you want a continuation, like maybe a multi chapter fic telling the story of DH continuing as if this had happened in the book, or maybe make it a two-shot. Or maybe even leave it as it is. Until then, BYE BYE!**


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